ESSAY 1
ESSAY
Directions: From the selection of the question, please answer the question in complete 5 paragraphs essay. Please make sure you use at least a documentary/film in the essay.
• Please use proper in-text quotation and a well written works cited page.
• Please try to use at least 3-4 outside sources in your response and do more research on each topic as you will have a little bit
Semi-autobiography versus Memoirs: Written as a memoir, are Persepolis and I am Malala more powerful than Dazai and Sidhwa’s semi-autobiographical novels? Why or why not? Compare either Dazai or Sidhwa’s text with either of the memoirs we read in class. What are the benefits and drawbacks of memoirs and semi-autobiography? Please use specific examples to justify your observations.
Persepolis book
http://www.wlhs.wlwv.k12.or.us/cms/lib8/OR01001812/Centricity/Domain/1354/the-complete-persepolis-by.pdf
Final essay: 2,200 words
Font: Times font 12, double space
Works cited page
Format: MLA 8th edition
Please use proper in-text quotations.
Lecture 1
Pp. 40-80
THE ROLE OF MEDIA – CHAPTER 6
“Then he began to cry. Stop listening to music, he begged. Stop going to movies. Stop dancing. Stop, he begged, or God will send another earthquake to punish us all” (39)
This reading section ends on a very interesting note. First and foremost, it begs us to question the role of media? What kind of influence does the mullah have over the people? Why does he instill fear into the ones who are listening? Why doesn’t Malala give in and confrom to the fears?
Documentary – media and India-Pakistan Conflict
Genre: Memoir as literature and history – Definition
Memoir, n: a well-established genre used by historical figures and other thoughtful but less recognized men and women to capture a certain moment in time.
Records of events or history written from the personal knowledge or experience of the writer, or based on special sources of information. (Oxford English Dictionary)
Memoir as a literacy device
The unique attributes of memoir as a literary genre
The difference between autobiographies, memoirs, and diaries
Memoir as a powerful witness to history
The relationship between memoir and memory
The Question at Heart
What is it about the memoir that can make it a more powerful means of expression than other literary forms?
By using the example of Testament of Youth (1933), Vera Brittain provides perhaps one answer. Grappling with how to depict World War I from a young woman’s perspective, Brittain rejected the idea of writing a novel, feeling that it would be too far removed from the reality of her experience.
Opting to write a memoir enabled Brittain to recount her personal story against the backdrop of a harrowing war, within a society that decried female independence and denied her the right to vote.
Vera Brittain – Testament of Youth (1933)
Personal versus Political
“In no other fashion, it seemed, could I carry out my endeavor to put the life of an ordinary individual into its niche in contemporary history, and thus illustrate the influence of world-wide events and movements upon the personal destinies of men and women.” (12)
Autobiography versus memoir
A memoir can excel in evoking immediacy and veracity, where private feelings mesh with public issues and raw emotions intertwine with the detachment of rational argument and the exegesis of an intellectual or political stance.
Memoir Versus Autobiography: Memoir differs from autobiography in that the memoir concerns a specific, concentrated period within a life, whereas an autobiography tends to recount the story of a life that is generally more all-embracing, with a greater chronological sweep and more linear structure
Memoir, Diary, and Autobiography: All three forms of relating personal stories are told in the first person, and therefore readers need to be mindful of the process of interpreting a narrator’s point of view.
Chapter 12 – A school girl’s diary – Turning point
”He suggested that I use a fake name so the Taliban wouldn’t know who was writing the diary” (77)
My first diary entry appeared on 3 January 2009, but two weeks before Fazlullah’s deadline. The title was ”I Am Afraid.” I wrote about how hard it was to study or to sleep at night with the constant sounds of fighting in the hills outside town. And I described how I walked to school each morning, looking over my shoulder for fear I’d see a Talib following me” (77)
Popular Memoirs
Eli Wiesel’s Night about his account of surviving his experience in Aushwitz
Ishmael Beah’s account of war in Sierra Leone, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (2007) demonstrate how the memoir stands as a powerful witness to history.
Gives history a more human context than a bald recounting of dates, battles, and other details of more formal or grand historical narratives.
Demonstrate the occasionally didactic nature of the memoir, which raises consciousness about society, culture, and government.
The complicated relationship of history and memory
Criticism on the memoir genre
While the memoir serves as a testament to injustice, it is also a genre that may indulge the worst excesses of contemporary voyeurism and self-absorption, so it is worth considering when memoirs reveal merely narcissism and even deceit.
Malala’s narrative is typical of the memoir’s ability to give us an insider’s perspective on events that may seem remote when reported in newscasts and other media. The vividness of personal experience evokes not only the sense of terror and displacement caused by Taliban control but also the beauty of the Swat Valley and the renowned hospitality of the Pashtun people.
Group activity – Important memoirs
September 11, 2001 – USA
The Diary of Anne Frank – Holland
Elie Wiesel’s Night – Holocaust
A Long Way Gone– Apartheid, South Africa
Civil Rights
A Jewish Prisoner of War
Survivor Testimony – Holocaust
Group Activity – Discussion
How do they each portray the times?
The emotional context? Historical facts?
Where do we feel the greater affinity?
How do the contrasts and complexities relate to individual experience as it is affected by social, cultural, and historical events?
Do you find that you also have “contrasts” within yourself as they relate to things in your life that you feel passionate about or want to change? What can we learn from looking at the world and ourselves in a more complex way?
Lecture 4
Pp. 80-120
Two Editions of I am Malala
One of the major differences in the two editions is the actual description of shooting between her actual publication versus the reader’s edition, which we are using in class.
Why do you think there would be two different versions of the same memoir?
Pakistan’s culture and history
Even though it is easy to read Malala’s memoir as someone who is the victim of their cultural practices, this reading is problematic because it erases the complex lives of women who are a part of the third world.
How would you define the “third world”?
Malala’s Background and context
Malala’s memoir should be read as part of this tradition of critique and million Hindus and Sikhs left Pakistan for India, and 7 million Muslims left India for Pakistan. In this, as in other moments of ethnic conflict, women became targets of terrible sexual violence, mutilation, abduction, and commodification.
Subsequently, as feminist historians Ritu Menon and Kamala Bhasin detail, from 1948 till 1956, both India and Pakistan agreed to forcibly repatriate and “exchange” the over 100,000 women who had been abducted, regardless of the women’s own wishes.
They were also forced to leave behind any children they had after their abduction. Enacted at the scale of the nation-state, this dehumanizing action formally cast women as property that “belonged” to both the ethnic community they were born in and the nation. This idea that women are not equal citizens but rather that they “belong” to the nation and community—also operative in other conflict zones from Bosnia to Rwanda—has continued to shape women’s experiences during conflic
Historical roots of Pakistan
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, had originally intended for Pakistan to be a Muslim country but a constitutionally secular state in which all communities— Hindu, Christian, Parsi, Sikh, Muslim—lived peacefully, and women and men had equal rights. Unfortunately, he passed away shortly after independence.
After 1947, ethnic minorities including many Hindus, Parsis, Jews, and Sikhs left the country, fleeing religious persecution. After Jinnah, successive political leaders colluded with the Army and religious groups as they jockeyed for political power.
The historical roots of Pakistan
TThe period from 1977 to 1988 under the military dictator Zia ul Haq saw a mass movement sweeping the countryside and the cities of Pakistan that argued for the radical Islamization of both state and civil society.
While religious parties were able to consolidate popular support from a largely uneducated and unemployed youth, as there was little industry in the fledgling nation to support the growth of a middle class, the Harvard- and Oxfordeducated political elite often made compromises with the Army and the religious parties to preserve their power.
Girls and Male Privilege
Culture: A culture can be arguably defined as a historically changing set of learned and shared ideas and practices, this understanding better helps us understand how the cultural privileging of boys manifests itself in different ways across the world.
Malala’s memoir shows how poor families in Pakistan and many other parts of South Asia endeavor to ensure that the boys get some kind of education and often care less if their daughter remains illiterate, because she does not need to be educated to assume the expected role of wife and mother
It’s a girl (2012) documentary
It’s a Girl (2012) shows that female infanticide has generated a massive gap in the population ratio of men to women across a large part of Asia, where, according to the United Nations, an estimated 200 million women are missing due to gendercide.
The social organization of South Asia’s many communities is largely patriarchal.
Many believe that the son will eventually care for the parents when they are old, providing a safety net for the future in a society without any state-sponsored social security.
The son therefore is to be prized; the daughter, however, will marry and leave for her husband’s family. She is thus often seen as an economic burden, even as she performs unrecognized but valuable labor in the fields and the home for her family.
South Asian Patriarchal System
These patriarchal ideas that the son is superior to the daughter prevail in middle-class and wealthy families as well. It is not uncommon therefore to see, as Malala describes, the husband and son in the family getting the choice meats at dinnertime, or more food, more milk or eggs, which is expensive, while the daughter-inlaw or daughter gets less or none.
Malala is able to cast a critical lens on this, because her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who is educated, liberated, and fair-minded, rejects this genderbased way of treating girls as less, and she embraces his perspective. Because of his education and support, she is able to challenge gender inequality within her culture. But many others are not so fortunate
Discussion Questions: pp 80-120
Part of Malala’s story is reminiscent of “1984” by George Orwell and “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. In a 1944 letter Orwell wrote, “All the national movements everywhere… seem to take non-democratic forms, to group themselves round some superhuman fuhrer [a German word meaning “leader”]… to adopt the theory that the end justifies the means… With this go the horrors of emotional nationalism and the tendency to disbelieve in the existence of absolute truth, all the facts have to t in with the words and prophecies of some infallible fuhrer.” Do you believe censorship is ever appropriate? How does that compare with parental control of TV, movies, books, and music? Who should be able to decide what you can read or hear? How does censorship work in Malala’s universe?
On page 87, Malala says, “war and terrorism had become a child’s play”. She describes the “almost daily” bombings of schools and other buildings in Swat. When a young person lives in a war-torn area, how does that influence attitudes, beliefs, and emotions?
How did the Taliban terrorize the people of the Swat valley? What type of restrictions were placed on men and women? Refer to chapter 15 and provide a specific example to justify your response.
The ineffective response from the army and government to the Taliban’s violent activities in Swat was a mystery and a grave disappointment to Malala and her family. Why would the government of Pakistan tolerate the Taliban in the country, when they were clearly causing numerous deaths, destruction to property, and fear among the residents in Swat?
First the Taliban took our music, then our Buddhas, then our his- tory… When Fazlullah came there were no more school trips. Girls were not sup- posed to be seen outside,” Malala wrote. In what ways are the rights of women limited in other countries? How might this be changed (if you agree that the rights of women should be changed)
Who was an outspoken opponent of the Taliban and assainated in 2007? Why did this person impress Malala? Name 10 heroes in the world. What makes a hero? How many are women? What are the characteristics of heroic people?
Documentary: He Named Malala (2015)
2015 documentary, directed by Davis Guggenheim
The documentary was shortlisted by Academy awards
Lecture 5
Pp. 120-160
Culture Politics and Pakistan
While it is tempting to see women and young girls like Malala as victims of their own culture, but Malala makes an interesting point. She says,
“I don’t want to be thought of as the ‘girl who was shot by the Taliban’ but the ‘girl who fought for education. ’ ” (152-153)
Therefore, today’s lecture focuses on understanding the Pakistani culture. We discussed a little bit of Pakistan in our last lecture but today we will discuss the factors that make it a country that has made the country vulnerable to external organizations such as The Taliban.
The History of Pakistan (1947- present)
Pakistan is a relatively young nation: It was formed in August 1947 when the British decolonized the Indian subcontinent. At the same time that the British granted India independence, they also divided it and created two countries, Pakistan and India. As I have mentioned, we will explore the 1947 Partition in detail in our third semi-autobiography – Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India.
Having stoked fears on the part of Muslims that they would be oppressed in a free India, as they were outnumbered by Hindus, the British enacted a partition along religious lines. Many Muslim-majority regions formed “Pakistan,” and Hindu-majority areas were named “India.” Pakistan became independent on Aug. 14, 1947, and India on Aug. 15, 1947.
The history of pakistan (1977-1988)
1977-1988 – The radicalization of the unemployed and disenfranchised youth by then military dictator , Zia ul Haq both in terms of civil and state society.
While religious parties were able to consolidate popular support from a largely uneducated and unemployed youth, as there was little industry in the fledgling nation to support the growth of a middle class, the Harvard- and Oxford educated political elite often made compromises with the Army and the religious parties to preserve their power.
Malala observes in her memoir that General Zia argued that the Army’s government was “pursuing Islamic principles” and opened many religious schools across the country.
Pakistan and its Relationship with Afghanistan
Indeed, the rise to power of the Taliban in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region, formerly known as North West Frontier Province, where Malala is from, is not unrelated to the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan during the Cold War
From 1979 to 1988, the United States covertly funded, trained, and armed mujahedeen militants through Pakistan, creating what became the Taliban to resist the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.
Military coups in Pakistan
First began in 1958 and three successful attempts (1958 – 1971, 1977 – 1988, 1999 – 2008)
1958-1971: the Pakistani President Major eneral Iskander Mirza dismissed the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan and the government of Prime Minister Feroz Khan Noon, appointing army commander-in-chief Gen. Ayub Khan as the Chief martial law administrator. Thirteen days later, Mirza himself was deposed by Ayub Khan, who appointed himself president.
1977-1988 (Operation Fair Play): General Zia Ul Haq took control overthrowing the more democratic prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The martial law enforced by President General Zia, it introduced the strict but modern form of conservatism which promoted the nationalistic and religious programmes.
1999-2008 – Bloodless coup-e-dat, when the Pakistan Army and then Chief of Army Staff and Chairman, General Pervez Musharraf, overthrew elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his existing elected government on 12 October 1999. Two days later, on 114 October 1999, Musharraf declared a state of emergency and issues a Provisional Constitutional Order.
Growing up in a war Zone– Chapter 21
The Taliban “might have been defeated, but their beliefs were still spreading.” (122) – limitations of civil rights.
“The bomb blasts were down to only two or three a year, and you could pass by the Green Square without seeing the aftermath of a Taliban killing spree. But true peace seemed like nothing more than a memory, a hope.” (123)
At this time, as Malala was experiencing what she called “limited peace”, she also realized her own ambitions. At this time she says, “I would do the things politicians only spoke of. And I would start with education.” (123)
Trauma
“I have started having nightmares, too. Dreams where men threw acid in my face. Dreams where men snuck up behind me. Sometimes I thought I heard footsteps echoing mine when I turned down the alley in front of our house. And sometimes I turned down the alley in front of our house. And sometimes I imagined figures slipping into the shadows when I passed. I imagined figures slipping into the shadows when I passed.” (126)
Living in a war zone, young children are exposed to copious amounts of death, violence, and so on. Nightmares are a side effect of this type of trauma.
The Shooting
”Just after we passed the Little Giants snack factory, the road became oddly quiet and the bus slowed down to a halt. I don’t remember a young man stopping us and asking the driver if this was the Khushal School bus. I don’t remember the other man jumping onto the tailboard and leaning into the back where we were all sitting. I never heard him ask, “Who is Malala?” and I didn’t hear the crack, crack, crack of the three bullets.
The last thing I remember is thinking bout my exam the next day. After that, everything went black.”
This is the moment when Malala was shot. Recalling the past lectures we have had in class, think about how she is describing the moment that changed her life.
Does she have emotions as she is describing her shooting?
Immigration versus refugee
Her new life in Birmingham
“The first word I spelled out was father. Then country.”
After waking up from the coma, it is important to note that Malala is concerned about her father and country. These two words reflect the importance of her father and his role in her life, and the passion she feels for her country. However, beknowst to her, she realizes that she is currently in Birmingham, England. This adds another dimension of complications for her.
Repetition of trauma – page 137
What had happened? I tried to remember. All sorts of images floated through my head. I didn’t know what was real and what was a dream…I am on a bus with my father and two men shoot us…I am on a stretcher , and my father is reaching out to me. I am trying to wake up, go to school, but I can’t. Then see my school and my friends and I cant reach them. I see a black man pointing a gun at me.” (137)
How is she describing the aftermath of her shooting experience?
What does she mean when she cannot decipher between “real” and ”dream”?
Chapters 26-29
Understanding the aftermath of her trauma, in these chapters, Malala is experiencing a multitude of emotions and confusion about where she is, who she is with, where her loved ones, and how she got there.
She is also psychologically in a shock. Her memory is muddled and her dreams have turned into nightmares. These are also signs of someone who is suffering from a traumatic experience.
Lecture 6
Pp. 160-End
Page 137
How is Malala describing her emotions after she was shot?
Is she conscious and aware of her surroundings?
What does she mean when she says ”the images seemed very real, yet I knew they couldn’t all be”?
Why does she call it a nightmare?
Page 162
”The doctors and nurses offered complicated explanations for why I didn’t recall the attack. They said the brain protects us from memories that are too painful to remember. Or, they said, my braid might have shut down as soon as I was injured. I love science, and nothing more than asking question upon question to figure out the way things work. But I don’t need science to figure out why I don’t remember the attack. I know why: God is kind to me.”
celebrity, n.
The state or fact of being well known, widely discussed, or publicly esteemed. Later usually: personal fame or renown as manifested in (and determined by) public interest and media attention.
In early use frequently synonymous with fame, but later often distinguished as referring to a more ephemeral condition (cf., e.g., quot. 1863), or as associated with popular as opposed to high culture
A well-known or famous person; (now chiefly) spec. a person, esp. in entertainment or sport, who attracts interest from the general public and attention from the mass media.
The power of celebrity: #Wearesilent campaign
http:// www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2602977/Selena-Gomez-Orlando-Bloom-celebs-tell-Malala-Yousafzais-brave-story-video-promoting-education-equality.html
com/celebrity/Reactions-Malala-Yousafzai-Winning-Nobel-Peace-Prize-35909600“>http:// www.popsugar.com/celebrity/Reactions-Malala-Yousafzai-Winning-Nobel-Peace-Prize-35909600
How does the media reflect on Malala and her fame?
Do you think she is a hero(ine) like Malalai or she has become a celebrity figure much like Selena Gomez and Emma Watson? How are they similar or different from her?
hero, n.
Classical Mythol. and Ancient Greek Hist. A man (or occas. a woman) of superhuman strength, courage, or ability, favoured by the gods; esp. one regarded as semi-divine and immortal. Also in extended use, denoting similar figures in non-classical myths or legends.
A man (or occas. a woman) distinguished by the performance of courageous or noble actions, esp. in battle; a brave or illustrious warrior, soldier, etc. Cf
A man (or occas. a woman) generally admired or acclaimed for great qualities or achievements in any field.
The central character or protagonist (often, but esp. in later use not necessarily, male) in a story, play, film, etc.; esp. one whom the reader or audience is intended to support or admire
Heroism and Malala
In chapter five, Malala describes being caught cheating. Her father tells her stories of heroes who made mistakes, including Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln. Later she says that it is hard to reconcile mistakes and forgiveness in her culture, a culture wherein people are taught to seek revenge and not to forgive and forget. What insight does this episode provide regarding the culture of Pakistan or Malala’s character?
I am Malala
After the shooting, confusion seemed to be the most prevalent emotion. Doctors, dignitaries, the army, the family, and friends heard and shared different stories. Of course, some of this confusion was detrimental to Malala’s medical treatment. At one point, Malala wrote about her father’s feelings, “In our society if someone dies, you feel very honored if one dignitary comes to your home. But now he was irritated. He felt all these people were just waiting for me to die when they had done nothing to protect me.” A similar emotion occurs when dignitaries visit a disaster site. Why do dignitaries become involved in dramatic events? Is this a benefit to anyone involved or a hindrance to disaster relief? What should dignitaries do to lend support and offer sympathy?
I am Malala
Malala mentions that her father had a visitor — a major for military operations in Swat. He called Malala “our daughter” because “now I was seen as the daughter of the nation.” Why would the Pakistani people embrace Malala figuratively the way after she was injured by the Taliban? Did they feel the same way about her before she was injured? Now that Malala and her family are settled in Pakistan, do you think that the people in Pakistan still see her as their “daughter”?
The end of the memoir
How does her memoir end?
What does she discuss in her epilogue?
The Complete Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi
Lecture 1: pp 3-85
Marjaane satrapi
Marjaane Satrapi – biography
Satrapi was born in Rasht and grew up in Tehran in a middle-class Iranian family.
Her parents were both politically active and supported Marxist causes against the monarchy of the last Shah. When the Iranian Revolution finally took place, they were dismayed and intimidated by the Muslim fundamentalists who took power.
Born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran, Satrapi grew up in Iran’s capital, Tehran. She was an only child of secular, Marxist parents. Iran’s Islamic Revolution against the shah, the country’s monarch, took place in 1979, the year Satrapi turned ten, and her child’s-eye view of the changes in her country later became a focus of her first book.
Her parents, who were against the regime of the shah, happily joined in the first protests that helped depose him, but the religious rule that followed turned out to be worse for them. An uncle of Satrapi’s was imprisoned by the shah’s regime, then executed by revolutionaries. Her mother, who was not religious, eventually felt compelled to wear Islamic garb to avoid attracting the attention of the religious police.
Marjaane Satrapi – Biography
At 18, she moved back to Tehran, where she attended college and struggled to adjust to living behind a veil and under the watch of the religious police, which would sometimes raid and break up the parties where she and her friends would wear makeup and western clothes.
After college, she moved to France, where she studied art in Strasbourg, then moved to Paris. Some of her friends there, who were part of a prominent artist’s studio called the Atelier des Vosges, introduced her to graphic novelists, starting with Art Spiegelman, whose graphic novel Maus told the story of the Holocaust through the lives of a few Jewish survivors
She realized she could tell stories and make serious points the same way. “Images are a way of writing,” she wrote on the Pantheon website. “When you have the talent to be able to write and to draw it seems a shame to choose one. I think it’s better to do both.” Graphic novels had some of the advantages of filmmaking as a way to tell stories, but without needing sponsors or actors, she added.
Introduction
1. According to the introduction, what stereotypical image is Satrapi trying to dispel?
2. The author indicates two motives for writing Persepolis. What are they?
Persopolis (Overview)
Satrapi created a book of black-and-white comic strips about living in Tehran from ages six to 14. The book, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (named after a part of Iran known for its ruins) tells the story of her growing up, while also showing the Islamic Revolution and its effects on Iranians. Toward the end of the book, war breaks out between Iran and Iraq, and her mother puts tape on the windows of the family home, anticipating correctly that Iraqi bombs will fall nearby.
The book also included moments of humor. “Tales of torture and war are offset by lighter scenes, like the 13-year-old Marjane trying to convince the morals police that her Michael Jackson button is really a button of Malcolm X, ‘the leader of black Muslims in America,'” wrote Tara Bahrampour in the New York Times. Iranians, Satrapi explained, are used to using humor to stave off despair.
Edward Nawotka, writing in People, called Persepolis “one of the quirkiest, most entertaining memoirs in recent years.” Dave Welch of Powells.com said it “expressed in deceptively simple black-and-white drawings the broken heart and crushed hope of a people.” One slightly dissenting comment came from Joy Press, writing in the Village Voice, who found Satrapi’s youthful, innocent voice powerful but complained that the book did not reach the emotional depth of Maus and that its summaries of Iranian history were cute but not insightful. “Satrapi keeps us at arm’s length, so that we never feel fully involved in this girl’s intellectual and moral transformation,” Press wrote.
Persopolis – Part II (Overview)
The sequel, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, was published in the United States in 2004. Nawotka of People declared it “the most original coming-of-age story from the Middle East yet.” It told the story of Satrapi’s years in Austria and her return to Iran at 18, showing Iran through the new eyes she had when she returned, not just struggling against life under a fundamentalist regime, but also facing the suffering the war with Iraq had caused. In the sequel, she and her college friends found small ways to rebel.
In art class, they had to draw women in head-to-toe chadors, and when she was sketching a clothed male model, she was scolded for staring at him too much. In private, she and her friends dressed up, wore makeup, and dated, which gave them bad reputations among their more conservative classmates. Many Iranians react to the religious police’s regulation of behavior by living double lives, she said. “You know in the school you have to behave in a way, and in your home another way,” she told Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah of the Chicago Tribune. “You get older, and then you have to behave in some way in the street and in some other way in your home. That makes you become an extremely multipersonality person.”
The Persopolis – The Veil
The veil – the change in life
Mother’s protest image in media – proud moment gone awry
“I was born with religion” (6) – what does the image mean? What is Satraapi trying to say here with the image? Does she mean that we are born tabula rasa and religion is imposed upon us by the society? Or is she implying something else?
The desire to become “a prophet” – Late night conversations with God
The Persopolis- The Bicycle
The bicycle implies revolution, as she learns about revolutionaries like Che Guevara.
“For a revolution to succeed, the entire population must support it” (16)
How do you explain her reasoning? How do her values and believes shape her character?
Rex Cinema Fire
Rex Cinema Fire
August 19, 1987 – Rex Cinema was set ablaze with fire and atleast 470 individuals were killed.
There is speculation over the actual number of casualties incurred during the fire. Some of the numbers cited by sources include 377, 410,430, 422, and over 800.A 1980 Amnesty-International report states that there were 438 victims, including individuals who were tried and wrongfully executed after the fire itself
Confusion was apparent as no one took responsibility for the fire. The ruling government of Iran reported that Islamic militants set the fire, while the anti-Shah protesters blamed the intelligence service of the nation, SAVAK for setting the fire.
How does Satrapi represent death in the rex cinema fire? Think about the ways in which violence is represented in the chapters we read thus far?
The Rex Cinema burning – responsibility of the shah (actual event) – what can we learn from this event? What other references can we draw from this event? The power of cinema/propaganda – audiences were seeing a controversial film called The Deers.
The Persopolis – The Water Cell
Glimpse into Iran’s political past
Marji’s political ties with her great-grand father, father of Reza Shah who was a low-ranking official who worked with the British to overthrow the Qajar empire.
Under the empire of the Shah, her family lost everything but her grandfather, who was ultimately caught as a communist, was appointed prime minister because he was western-educated – it was his punishment that was reflective in the title of the chapter.
How do you read Marji’s reading of the Shah?
Persopolis
Times of torture of the Shahs – Reza’s son was much worse
Dissapearence/Absence of Marjaane’s grand father?
The Persopolis – The Letters
Classism – Mehri (the maid)’s love affair with the neighbor’s son
Social class
Kurdish Author – Ashraf Darvishian
Father – “their love was impossible”
Black Friday (1978) – death of many protestors – how is the image of death portrayed in the graphic novel?
The Persopolis – The Party
Aftermath of massacres after Black Friday
Sees hypocrisy that people who were at one time supporting the shah are touting pro-revolution slogans
Shah’s secret service (Savak) who is unapologetic about killing communists
Marjaane learns about tolerance/intolerance
The Persopolis – The heroes
3000 political prisoners are released (1978)
“Bad people are dangerous but forgiving them is too. Don’t worry there is justice on earth” (52)
Marji’s understanding of heroism – why is her father not a hero or a revoultionary?
The idea of shame
Marji’s central conflict in the chapter – what is justice? Injustice?
The Persopolis -Moscow
Introduction of Anoosh – a communist revolutionary and a “hero”
Anoosh versus Freydoon – believer of ideals of justice and democracy
Escapes to USSR –becomes a Russian Marxist-Leninist scholar and marries a Russian woman
Russians versus Iranians
Idea of “family memory” – 64 – telling and retelling of storytelling
The persopolis – The Sheep
Discussion with Marji’s father – illertracy of Iranian population and as a result, they are unware of Marxist ideologies which can, according to him , unite them – nationalism or religious ethic would work. – Do you agree with his observation? Why or why not?
1979 – Khomeini comes into power and Marjis life has changed forever. Many people escape to Europe and other countries
Anoosh argues that its just a period of “transition” – many communists are executed including Anoosh on the charge of being a Russian spy (70) – loss of family and friends – the period of transition takes a sinister turn
Marji’s home bombed (71) – the start of the Iran-Iraq war
The Persepolis – The Trip
Fundamentalist takeover of the American embassy – inability for Marji to migrate to US
Universities closed for 2 years – the need to make textbooks more Islamic
The rise of the veil by the fundamentalists – forbiddance of attraction between opposite sexes
Trip to Europe – the war had been going for three months – the need to shield the child from the violence – very unlike Lenny who was exposed to the violence outright because of her connections with Ayah and so on.
The Complete Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi
Lecture 2: 87-172
Marjaane satrapi
Marjaane Satrapi – biography
Satrapi was born in Rasht and grew up in Tehran in a middle-class Iranian family.
Her parents were both politically active and supported Marxist causes against the monarchy of the last Shah. When the Iranian Revolution finally took place, they were dismayed and intimidated by the Muslim fundamentalists who took power.
Born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran, Satrapi grew up in Iran’s capital, Tehran. She was an only child of secular, Marxist parents. Iran’s Islamic Revolution against the shah, the country’s monarch, took place in 1979, the year Satrapi turned ten, and her child’s-eye view of the changes in her country later became a focus of her first book.
Her parents, who were against the regime of the shah, happily joined in the first protests that helped depose him, but the religious rule that followed turned out to be worse for them. An uncle of Satrapi’s was imprisoned by the shah’s regime, then executed by revolutionaries. Her mother, who was not religious, eventually felt compelled to wear Islamic garb to avoid attracting the attention of the religious police.
Marjaane Satrapi – Biography
At 18, she moved back to Tehran, where she attended college and struggled to adjust to living behind a veil and under the watch of the religious police, which would sometimes raid and break up the parties where she and her friends would wear makeup and western clothes.
After college, she moved to France, where she studied art in Strasbourg, then moved to Paris. Some of her friends there, who were part of a prominent artist’s studio called the Atelier des Vosges, introduced her to graphic novelists, starting with Art Spiegelman, whose graphic novel Maus told the story of the Holocaust through the lives of a few Jewish survivors
She realized she could tell stories and make serious points the same way. “Images are a way of writing,” she wrote on the Pantheon website. “When you have the talent to be able to write and to draw it seems a shame to choose one. I think it’s better to do both.” Graphic novels had some of the advantages of filmmaking as a way to tell stories, but without needing sponsors or actors, she added.
Introduction
1. According to the introduction, what stereotypical image is Satrapi trying to dispel?
2. The author indicates two motives for writing Persepolis. What are they?
Persopolis (Overview)
Satrapi created a book of black-and-white comic strips about living in Tehran from ages six to 14. The book, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (named after a part of Iran known for its ruins) tells the story of her growing up, while also showing the Islamic Revolution and its effects on Iranians. Toward the end of the book, war breaks out between Iran and Iraq, and her mother puts tape on the windows of the family home, anticipating correctly that Iraqi bombs will fall nearby.
The book also included moments of humor. “Tales of torture and war are offset by lighter scenes, like the 13-year-old Marjane trying to convince the morals police that her Michael Jackson button is really a button of Malcolm X, ‘the leader of black Muslims in America,'” wrote Tara Bahrampour in the New York Times. Iranians, Satrapi explained, are used to using humor to stave off despair.
Edward Nawotka, writing in People, called Persepolis “one of the quirkiest, most entertaining memoirs in recent years.” Dave Welch of Powells.com said it “expressed in deceptively simple black-and-white drawings the broken heart and crushed hope of a people.” One slightly dissenting comment came from Joy Press, writing in the Village Voice, who found Satrapi’s youthful, innocent voice powerful but complained that the book did not reach the emotional depth of Maus and that its summaries of Iranian history were cute but not insightful. “Satrapi keeps us at arm’s length, so that we never feel fully involved in this girl’s intellectual and moral transformation,” Press wrote.
Persopolis – Part II (Overview)
The sequel, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, was published in the United States in 2004. Nawotka of People declared it “the most original coming-of-age story from the Middle East yet.” It told the story of Satrapi’s years in Austria and her return to Iran at 18, showing Iran through the new eyes she had when she returned, not just struggling against life under a fundamentalist regime, but also facing the suffering the war with Iraq had caused. In the sequel, she and her college friends found small ways to rebel.
In art class, they had to draw women in head-to-toe chadors, and when she was sketching a clothed male model, she was scolded for staring at him too much. In private, she and her friends dressed up, wore makeup, and dated, which gave them bad reputations among their more conservative classmates. Many Iranians react to the religious police’s regulation of behavior by living double lives, she said. “You know in the school you have to behave in a way, and in your home another way,” she told Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah of the Chicago Tribune. “You get older, and then you have to behave in some way in the street and in some other way in your home. That makes you become an extremely multipersonality person.”
Representation of death
The Persopolis – The Party
Aftermath of massacres after Black Friday
Sees hypocrisy that people who were at one time supporting the shah are touting pro-revolution slogans
Shah’s secret service (Savak) who is unapologetic about killing communists
Marjaane learns about tolerance/intolerance
The Persopolis – The heroes
3000 political prisoners are released (1978)
“Bad people are dangerous but forgiving them is too. Don’t worry there is justice on earth” (52)
Marji’s understanding of heroism – why is her father not a hero or a revoultionary?
The idea of shame
Marji’s central conflict in the chapter – what is justice? Injustice?
The Persopolis -Moscow
Introduction of Anoosh – a communist revolutionary and a “hero”
Anoosh versus Freydoon – believer of ideals of justice and democracy
Escapes to USSR –becomes a Russian Marxist-Leninist scholar and marries a Russian woman
Russians versus Iranians
Idea of “family memory” – 64 – telling and retelling of storytelling
The persopolis – The Sheep
Discussion with Marji’s father – illertracy of Iranian population and as a result, they are unware of Marxist ideologies which can, according to him , unite them – nationalism or religious ethic would work. – Do you agree with his observation? Why or why not?
1979 – Khomeini comes into power and Marjis life has changed forever. Many people escape to Europe and other countries
Anoosh argues that its just a period of “transition” – many communists are executed including Anoosh on the charge of being a Russian spy (70) – loss of family and friends – the period of transition takes a sinister turn
Marji’s home bombed (71) – the start of the Iran-Iraq war
The Persopolis – The Trip
Fundamentalist takeover of the American embassy – inability for Marji to migrate to US
Universities closed for 2 years – the need to make textbooks more Islamic
The rise of the veil by the fundamentalists – forbiddance of attraction between opposite sexes
Trip to Europe – the war had been going for three months – the need to shield the child from the violence – very unlike Lenny who was exposed to the violence outright because of her connections with Ayah and so on.
The Persopolis – f-14
“War always takes you by surprise”
Marji’s father is doubtful about Iran’s ability to defend itself since all the pilots were either jailed or executed after a failed coup d’état, an attitude that Marji interprets as defeatist and unpatriotic. They realized afterwards that the jailed pilots agreed to be freed in order to attack Iraq only on the condition that the government broadcast the national anthem.
Replace National Anthem with Islamic Hymn
BBC – a mouthpiece for truth? But also Western media? Where are the lines between the two?
The discussion of war in school – her report on the war’s history was disliked versus Pardisse’s report “letter to her father” – dead and hero – was much preferred – what does this mean in terms of the information that was being taught at school?
Heroism
”I wish he were alive and in jail rather than dead and a hero” (86)
How do you define a hero?
How do you define a martyr?
The jewels: Effects of war
Supermarkets were empty
Jerry cans to get gas
People were fleeing from nearby cities to Tehran. As a result, the resources were getting low and tensions between people was increasing.
The key
Page 95
“In school, they lined us up twice a day to mourn the war dead. They put on funeral marches and we had to beat our breasts”
The Key
What is the purpose of a “nupital chamber,” and why are there so many of them in Tehran?
In this chapter, adults seek to influence the younger population of Iran in different ways. How do Marjane and her school mates defy their teachers? On the last page of the chapter (102), There are only two frames. Compare and contrast their images and their messages. (They look similar but show opposite experiences–what does this say about life and war?)
Education – Compare and contrast with I am Malala (pp. 98)
Why was Marji’s generation so rebellious? What does the teacher blame?
What injustices do the parents see in the educational system? Which restriction is particularly ironic?
What are the similarities and differences between the insitituitions of education in Persepolis and I am Malala?
The key to Paradise
And what is the significance of the “golden” key given to boys?
The key
On the last page of the chapter (102), There are only two frames.
Compare and contrast their images and their messages. (They look similar but show opposite experiences–what does this say about life and war?)
Western ways of Life: The Wine and Cigarette
Marjane’s family enjoys having parties and drinking–what precautions do they take, and why do they continue despite the danger of being found out? Why do people seek to keep their regular routines even in dangerous times?
What understanding does Marjane come to about the war? Why could it have been avoided?
Cigarette
In the last frame, she announces that “with this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye.” Do you believe her? What does it take to go from being a child to an adult?
The Passport: Chemical weapons (pp.122)
Kim Wilde (133)
What was the purpose of the Guardians of the Revolution? What happens when they encounter Marji? How does Marji respond?
The dowry
Where do Marji’s parents decide to send their daughter? Why? What is Marji’s reaction?
The Complete Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi
Lecture 3: 172-252
The Veil Debate
https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWrGkdzGINY
Discussion Questions
What do clothes say about the people who wear them? When do they become an expression of identity?
During the civil rights movement in the United States, some African Americans wore a hairstyle called the Afro, which was considered an expression of black history, culture, and pride. When do expressions of identity become a protest?
Do you think that the state/government have the right to tell you what you can or cannot wear?
Reading Assignment Discussion questions
Immigration: What does being Iranian mean to Marjane as she adjusts to life as an exile in Austria?
Class Politics: how are the different factions of society affected by the revolution? In other words, discuss the people who have migrated to other countries as a result of the war and those families who decided to stay in Iran after the revolution.
Coming-of-Age: What are the stages in Marjane’s downward spiral that ends with her living on the streets? To what extent does she take responsibility for her failings? What changes has she gone through that lead her to embrace the veil and to return to Iran?
Humor: American writer William Zinsser has written that “humor is the writer’s armor against the hard emotions.” Is this the way that Satrapi seems to be using humor when she says that “every situation offered an opportunity for laughs” (97) and again that laughter is “the only way to bear the unbearable” (266)? What instances of humor stand out to you? Why?
Sexuality: How does Marji cope with her romantic relationships and sexual maturity in Austria?
The Iranian Revolution: How is revolution portrayed in the book? In Satrapi’s account, what are the stages of the revolution and what do these stages mean for the Iranian people?
The Shabbat and The dowry
As the bombing increased, Marji and her family lived with her Jewish neighbors but do not survive the next bombing raid.
The dowry becomes a revealing chapter as it shows the negative effects of the war. Marji’s family does not believe that she is safe in Iran and force her to migrate to Austria after they witness the execution of a young rebellious woman.
Her mother is gripped with fear by her rebelliousness, explaining that she risks execution, which is even worse for young women because it is against the law to kill a virgin. To circumvent this law, a Guardian of the Revolution will marry a condemned virgin, take her virginity, execute her, then sends a meagre dowry (and message) to her family. I
Part 2 Begins
Who makes Marjane feel at home in Austria? How do they do it?
What does a person need to feel at home in a foreign place?
Why do you think Marjane ends up with her group of “outsider” friends? What are your impressions of them?
Let’s discuss Marji’s life in Germany. How does she communicate with her roommate?
How does Marji cope with western holidays including Christmas?
Compare and contrast Marjane’s friends at school with Lucia and her family in Tyrol. In what ways do they make Marjane feel better about her new life?
Pasta
What is Anarchism, and why do you think Marjane’s friends are so interested in it?
What are some of the key differences between the culture in which Marjane was raised and the Western culture into which she tries to assimilate after she moves to Austria (118)?
Anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy that advocates self-governed societies based on voluntary institutions. These are often described as stateless societies although several authors have defined them more specifically as institutions based on non-hierarchical free associations.
Anarchism holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful. While anti-statism is central, anarchism entails opposing authority or hierarchical organisation in the conduct of all human relations, including, but not limited to, the state system.
Famous Anarchists
individualist anarchist thought in the United States and Europe.
Thoreau was an American author, poet, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist.
Civil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil Government) is an essay by Thoreau that was first published in 1849.
It argues that people should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican–American War. It would influence Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Martin Buber and Leo Tolstoy through its advocacy of nonviolent resistance.
Understanding of Sexuality
How is her understanding of sex/sexuality different from Dimple?
How does Marjane respond to Momo’s suggestion that she “cultivate” herself?
Simone de Beauvoir – The Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir – second sex
Published in 1949
it deals with the treatment of women throughout history and is often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy and the starting point of second-wave feminism
She believes that woman’s inferiority in society is a result not of natural differences but of differences in the upbringing of man and woman.
“The eternal feminine” – French feminist philosophy – She uses the phrase “the eternal feminine” to describe all the terrifying processes of fertility and reproduction that arose from male discomfort with the fact of his birth and the inevitability of his death
The pasta
Why does Marjane get kicked out of the dormitory? Do you think she was justified in defending her background, or was she just being rude?
Nationality and perception
One of the nuns tells her off for eating out of a pot, and then insults her for being Iranian, saying that Iranians have no education. Marji talks back to the nun, saying that she was a prostitute before becoming a nun, and ends up getting kicked out of the boarding house.
The pill
Julie introduces Marjane to many new ideas about sex and being a woman in the western world. Which ideas does Marjane accept, and which make her feel uncomfortable? (187-8)
The Vegetable
Marjane goes through many physical changes in this chapter—both voluntary and involuntary. How do they think they affect her?
How have your physical changes affected you over your lifetime?
The Vegetable
Marjane says that her life in Austria felt like “playing a game by somebody else’s rules.” What does she mean by this? Does she have to play by “somebody else’s rules” to survive in her new home, or not?
The Vegetable
Discussion Questions
How do you think Marjane and her mother’s relationship have changed since Marjane left Iran? Do you think they are closer or more distant now that they live in different countries?
Marjane proclaimes Markus “the first great love of [my] life” (65) but their relationship has its own challenges and troubles. Do you think Markus is a good boyfriend to Marjane? What happens in the chapter that supports your opinion? How do some Austrians make Marjane feel like an outsider? Why do you think they act this way towards her?
Why does Marjane request that her parents never ask about the three months she went missing? Do you think this was the right thing to do?
Look at the last frame in the chapter. What do you think Marjane’s attitude is about going back to Iran? Make a prediction about how life will go for her after she returns.
Hide and Seek
There is an actual hide and seek game in this chapter, but what other meanings might this title have for Marjane? What is she seeking and/or hiding from?
Marjane proclaimes Markus “the first great love of [my] life” but their relationship has its own challenges and troubles. Do you think Markus is a good boyfriend to Marjane? What happens in the chapter that supports your opinion?
How do some Austrians make Marjane feel like an outsider? Why do you think they act this way towards her? (page 122) “dirty foreigner”
Hide and seek
Marji ‘s boyfriend Enrique invites her to a party, and, although it’s not what she expects, she has fun. She meets Enrique’s friend Ingrid, and, when she wakes up in the morning with Enrique not next to her, jumps to the conclusion that he is in love with Ingrid, but, later that day, he reveals to Marji that he is, in fact, gay. Marji is feeling confused, and has a long talk with her physics teacher. She decides that she wants a physical relationship, and, after failing miserably with the boy she likes, begins getting farther and farther into drugs.
She soon meets Markus, a student at her school, and falls in love with him, but their relationship is frowned upon by both Markus’s mother and Frau Dr. Heller. Marji procures some drugs for Markus, and gains a reputation as a drug dealer. Marji feels ashamed and believes that she betrayed her country and her mother by not being the best she could be.
The Croissant
Some of Marjane’s friends are very concerned about the new conservative, “Nazi-like” politicians in Austria. Why doesn’t Marjane seem to share their anger?
What are some of the ways Marjane and Markus grow apart during this chapter?
The Veil
Why is the chapter called the “veil”?
Why does Marjane end up on the streets? Do you think it’s a situation she could have avoided?
Why does Marjane request that her parents never ask about the three months she went missing? Do you think this was the right thing to do?
Look at the last frame in the chapter. What do you think Marjane’s attitude is about going back to Iran? Make a prediction about how life will go for her after she returns. (page 244-245)
What are the stages in Marjane’s downward spiral that ends with her living on the streets? To what extent does she take responsibility for her failings? What changes has she gone through that lead her to embrace the veil and to return to Iran?
The return
How have Marjane’s parents changed since she left Iran? What is their attitude towards the Iran-Iraq war, and why? (page 250-251)
Marjane’s father complains that the West supplied both sides of the war with weapons and supplies. Why do you think that they did this?
At the end of the chapter, Marjane decides never to tell her parents about her “misadventures” in Europe. Do you think she made the right choice? What about the fact that she eventually wrote this book?
The return
The return
After living in Vienna for 4 years, Marji finally returns to Tehran. She can feel the oppression in the air, now more so than ever.
At the airport, she recognizes her parents instantly, noticing the war has aged them faster than time normally would. Marji has changed so much, her parents don’t even recognize her until she approaches them herself. On the way home, she sits in silence as she tries to take in being back on Iranian soil.
The next morning, she takes notice of the things around her room that were remnants of her “punk” younger years. She sponges off a punk she had drawn on her wall as an action to move on to the future.
A few hours after doing so, she decides to go out. Donning her veil once more, she takes in the 65-foot murals of martyrs, rebel slogans, and the streets renamed after the dead. She hurries home. When her father arrives, there is slight awkwardness until he starts to tell Marji the story of the war. He tells her of the horrors and they talk deep into the night. After hearing what her parents had gone through while she was away in Vienna, she resolves to never tell them of her time there
The Persepolis Overall
In Persepolis Satrapi tells many people’s stories besides her own–her mother’s memories of visiting her own father in prison, Anoosh’s story of his Uncle Fereydoon, and others. How are these stories related to her own? What value does Satrapi attribute to storytelling?
How are the personal stories of individual citizens related to the history of their nation?
The Complete Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi
Lecture 4: pp 253-end
Discussion Questions
Identity: Iranian in the West and Western in Iran, Marjane says that she is “nothing” (272). How does she resolve her identity crisis? Several times in Satrapi’s narrative, Marjane seems to hit bottom and decides to remake herself. How are these various new selves related to each other?
Nationhood and Storytelling: How are the personal stories of individual citizens related to the history of their nation?
Fear and Repression: Marjane says that “fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators’ repression.” In what ways are young people in Iran repressed, and how do they rebel against this repression?
Genre: Why do you think Satrapi ultimately chose to write this book, and why did she write it in this visual way? What does the reader gain from the graphic novel format?
Graphic Novel: What particular incidents in the story do you think are conveyed more effectively in pictures than they could have been in words alone?
Change: What are some of the ways Marjane and her female friends show off their individuality, despite their restrictive clothing?
Women in Iran
Women In Iran
Although these women do cover, which makes them very different from women in the United States, they have performed actions very similar to those of the women in the west. At the beginning of the twentieth century women in Iran were expected to live quietly, dress conservatively, marry the man their family told them to marry, answer to their husbands and mothers-in law, and adhere to the rules of a society that was strictly segregated by sex (Afkhami 110-111).
The twentieth century brought about changes for women in Iran. In the mid-twentieth century, women fought for the right to vote through the Women’s Organization of Iran (WOI). This organization primarily functioned through volunteers. It worked during the 1950s for Iranian women to gain the right to vote in 1963. Some members of the clergy violently opposed this angel however, the government fought against them and the law eventually stood firm (Afkhami 114). Women in the United States had a fight similar to this in the early twentieth century when they gained their right to vote in 1920.
Women in iran
Additionally, women in Iran are heavily affected by American culture and standards of beauty. Women in Iran are limited in terms of making fashion statements due to the fact that they are mostly covered, with the exception of their faces.
In 2000, it was in vogue for women in Iran to get plastic surgery, particularly surgeries that restructured the nose. The women used their new noses as fashion statements. Women also rebelled by dying their hair and allowing their bangs to peak out from their scarves. One woman said, referring to her nose job, “I don’t want to have any faults in my face. I’d like to look beautiful, like Marilyn Monroe.” Not only does this woman want to be beautiful, like women in all cultures, but also she actually wants to look more like a woman who has a stereotypically western appearance (Sciolino).
Pre-Iranian revolution
Post-Iranian revolution
The Iranian revolution – convocation
Veil as a political act
Education system
In this chapter, Marjane states that “fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators’ repression.” In what ways are young people in Iran repressed, and how do they rebel against this repression?
The socks
The end
How does Marjane’s family react to her eventual separation and divorce from Reza? What does this show about their politics and character?
Why does Marjane finally decide to leave Iran? Do you think she will follow her mothers instructions and never return?
